Thanks to the kind folks at Subterranean Press, one lucky winner will receive a copy of both Tobias S. Buckell's The Executioness (Canada, USA, Europe, and Subpress) and Paolo Bacigalupi's The Alchemist (Canada, USA, Europe, and Subpress).

Here's the blurb for the shared world:

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay.

Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors’ roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more— until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

And here's the blurb for The Executioness:

Magic has a price.

In Khaim, that price is your head if you’re found using it. For the use of magic comes with a side effect: it creates bramble. The bramble is a creeping, choking menace that has covered majestic ancient cities, and felled civilizations. In order to prevent the spread of the bramble, many lose their heads to the cloaked executioners of Khaim.

Tana is one of these executioners, taking the job over from her ailing father in secret, desperate to keep her family from starvation. But now her family has been captured by raiders, and taken to a foreign city.

So Khaim’s only female executioner begins a quest to bring her family back together. A bloody quest that will change lives, cities, and even an entire land, forever. A quest that will create the legend of The Executioness.

And here's the blurb for The Alchemist:

In the beleaguered city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble’s essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire—if it doesn’t destroy him and his family first.

The rules are the same as usual. You need to send an email at reviews@(no-spam)gryphonwood.net with the header "EXECUTIONESS." Remember to remove the "no spam" thingy.

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commentaires:

i always ask about such stories, how do people find the magic in the first place ?how do they attain expertise if the price is so high ?the lack of a good answer, and possibly the avoidance of it at all, is why i don't like these type of fantasy stories.

It's called suspension of disbelief. Maybe the price wasn't so high "in the first place" and became higher with time. Maybe there's a huge number of other factors that you'll never know because you won't read the stories.

PARADOXICAL - The fact that you bother to post a comment like this shows far more about you than about me.to be honest i think i am much more mature mentally than 85% (probably more) of posters in sci-fi forums.i have seen fanatic fans that go into crazy mode with 1 word of criticism.i have no problems with people like you not liking me.you are just little kids.

btw, to those who might respond to this :notice that i was attacked first, just saying in case some one decides that i attacked first.